Palazzo degli Uffizi

Giorgio Vasari
1560s-1580s

This palace, which literally means "offices," was designed as a centralized space for the 13 magistracies of Florence--that is, the city bureaucracy. The building occupies three sides of a long narrow piazza, a link between the Arno River and the Palazzo Vecchio and the Piazza della Signoria. The long colonnades protected the entrance portals of individual administrative offices. Today, of course, the structure houses the world-famous art museum.

View looking toward the Palazzo Vecchio

The long facade is almost unvaried. Piers with niches alternate with two columns; thus three bays are repeated throughout the linear facade. Above this the three bay unit is continued in the mezzanine and the piano nobile where triads of framed windows have alternating pediments.